


Bursting Bubbles of Bad Luck

by DisorganizedKitten



Series: Finding the color in Monochrome [3]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: A lot of siblings - Freeform, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Best read if one knows how discord works, Curses, Felix & Allegra friendship, Kwami have questionable morals, Magic, Marinette Dupain-Cheng is Ladybug, Multiple Writing Styles, Nino Lahiffe is high society, Non-Linear Narrative, Quantic Kids - Freeform, Secret identities are dumb, Sibling Bonding, That last one is minor but deserves a tag, Timeline What Timeline, Very non-linear narrative, big families, felix is chat noir, felix-centric, look this took me over a year and my writing grew mkay, slowburn, sorta - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-09-15
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:00:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25074991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DisorganizedKitten/pseuds/DisorganizedKitten
Summary: I'm using prompts from an entire year ago. That's how long I've been working on this. I did half last year, and finished it in a rush this year.
Series: Finding the color in Monochrome [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1430614
Comments: 4
Kudos: 5





	1. Forever (July 31st)

**Author's Note:**

> I'm using prompts from an entire year ago. That's how long I've been working on this. I did half last year, and finished it in a rush this year.

Felix was not normally one to poke things he shouldn't. But while chasing through the catacombs, he tripped.

His hand brushed something cold and round, but he disregarded it, more focused on finding Caseario.

Why were little boys so easily provoked?

“Rio!” Felix yelled, scrambling to his feet. “Caseario Aurva Prolux!” his voice echoed through the cold caverns, making Felix flinch. “Caseario get back here!”

Felix stumbled again, and cursed his poor vision. He should have grabbed a flashlight. He should have stopped Rio from even considering actually doing this, but he hadn’t been paying enough attention. Felix knew that, more than anything else, was why Rio had done this. If it were Mom, or Dad, or even Emilia, they would have noticed sooner, and nipped it in the bud.

Why did Felix have to be the odd one out? Why did they leave him in charge of a stock of nine year olds? Why wasn’t he paying more attention?

He stopped to listen, trying to slow his breathing enough to actually hear footsteps. It proved unneeded a moment later, when a scream rang out.

“Caseario!” Felix yelled, scrambling to start moving.

He nearly ran into two walls, and tripped into a corner, before he turned into the final hallway at last. "Rio!"

"Felix!" Caseario screamed, and Felix heard movement just to his side.

"Rio!" Felix waved about, trying to find him. His hand felt something alive, and it latched onto him suddenly. "What were you thinking?! Are you okay?"

Caseario shook, gripping Felix's arm like a lifeline. "I'm sorry! I'm so so sorry Félix!"

Felix sighed, hugged his brother to his chest. "Come on, let's get out of here. Do you have a flashlight?"

"I did," Rio said. "I dropped it though, when I saw the skeleton over there."

Felix couldn't see where Rio was pointing, but he didn't want to see anyway. Shivers ran up his spine, and he took a deep breath to steel himself. Get Rio out first.

"Do you think you can find it?"

"Yes."

They both knelt, and despite the apprehension lacing their every move, the brothers felt around until they found the flashlight. Rio pointed it in the direction opposite of where he believed the body to be, and with a thin stream of light, they made their way back around the corners.

Everything was fine, aside from the chill creeping into their bones, until not far from the exit.

Something rustled, and someone gasped. Felix lost his footing in his attempt to find the source and protect his brother. He hit the ground hard, and inhaled sharply at the stabbing sensations from across his body.

"Felix!" Rio cried, the flashlight beam landing beside him. "Felix?"

"I'm okay," Felix breathed, pushing himself up. There was a rock in his left palm, and he closed his fingers around it. It was small, but hopefully it would still hurt an attacker.

Felix had just started to stand when someone yelled, Rio screamed, and pain shot from his hand into his arm and through the rest of his body.

You know when you stick a 9 volt battery on your tongue to check the charge? Imagine that, but stronger, and spiking.

That's what Felix felt, along with panic, in his last moments of consciousness.

***

Marinette froze at the entryway to the catacombs, listening to the shuffling of unsure feet.

Her teacher patted her arm, and they started forward.

Marinette did not like the catacombs. They were a reminder of everything wrong with the world. A labyrinth of mass graves, full of long-rotted bodies from wars a century ago. If that wasn't bad enough, there were worse things hiding down there now.

Caches of unused magic, severed curses, objects covered in remnants of spells, even some cursed objects that were down there for the sake of it. Marinette couldn't understand how some people could be that sick, that they would lay curses just for the fun of it, and leave them for unsuspecting innocents.

But, despite all the bad, the catacombs were also home to some ingredients that weren't easily accessible elsewhere.

Like the death flower that Master Fu said they needed for this location spell.

Master Fu pushed forward as Marinette tried to pin down the source of the sound. A flashlight beam came into view, reflecting off the rocks. Marinette tried to see through the flashlight to the person on the other side - the very short person on the other side, - but stepped on a tilted jutting stone. She stumbled into the wall, barely catching herself before she hit her head. Thank goodness for gloves, those rocks felt sharp.

Something else shifted quickly, and then there was a thump. "Felix!" The flashlight beam moved, and she caught sight of a black vest and blond hair. "Felix?"

"I'm okay," the person on the floor said, starting to push themselves up.

They were halfway back up when Marinette felt the shock of magic. "Drop it!" she warned, starting forward.

The smaller of the two screamed, probably started, while the probably-teenager seized up.

"Stop screaming!" she snapped, reaching them. She started to feel the older's fingers, trying to pry them open, but he collapsed as she let go of his right hand.

"Felix!"

Marinette moved, either to catch him or check the younger one, but Master Fu held her back, and stepped forward instead. “Fu!” She began, but he held out his hand and with a flash of green, Felix stopped writhing. Marinette brushed past Fu to the other child. “Hi. My name’s Marinette.”

“What is he doing to Felix?” The kid asked, voice high with panic.

She glanced back. Marinette wasn’t sure, actually, but saying that outright would not end well, so she settled with “He’s helping him. Can you tell me your name?”

“No.”

Not what Marinette had hoped for, but not altogether unexpected. “That’s okay. Do you know what Felix grabbed a minute ago?”

“No.”

“That’s okay, it’s dark.” Which, actually, was something Marinette could fix. She slipped her glove off and reached for the woven square in her pocket. She pulled it out, starting the process of changing it into a crystal. The child gasped as glowing pink bubbles started from Marinette’s fingers and continued outwards until there was a soft, solid glow coming from the newly formed stone. “There, that’s better.” For now. It would be best to not be detectable at all to anything living down here, but Marinette would take her chances in the interest of making it less traumatizing for the kid.

“How did you do that?”

With the lighting as more than just a small flashlight beam, Marinette could take in the kid’s features. Dusty blond hair, grey-blue eyes, white skin, and overalls with a green shirt underneath. She smiled, trying for reassuring, and willed her eyes to go blue enough to match. “Magic.”

“Whoah.” 

Marinette grinned a bit more authentically at that.

“Marinette.”

She turned quickly to look back at Fu, questioning. He was done with whatever spells he had been working with. “Yes, Master Fu?”

Fu picked up Felix’s hand, showing a sickly glistening band of black around one of his fingers. It was oozing out of his skin. Marinette shuddered. “It’s a curse. Powerful, coded to be malevolent.”

“How do we break it?”

“I don’t know.”

Her heart stuttered. Fu almost never said that. For him to not know, things were very bad.

Beside her, she heard the kid take a breath too. “Felix got cursed? By who?”

“I don’t know that either, I’m afraid.”

“Will it hurt him?”

Fu looked back down and shook his head. “Not anymore. I suppressed the worst bits, but it will take time to find a full remedy. In the meantime, you both should go home.”

“Is that safe?” Marinette burst out. It couldn’t be! People not used to magic couldn’t safely just have it appear in their lives!

“It will be for now.”

“How did he get cursed?”

Marinette glanced over at the kid, who had moved from her side to the side of the cursed boy. She sighed and sat down to explain, ignoring Fu’s raised eyebrows. “The catacombs are full of magic, some benevolent and some malevolent. He probably just activated a curse that’s been laying around like a trap.”

“Oh.”

She swallowed. “Yeah. Master Fu can get you home now, is that okay?”

He nodded. Fu waved his hand, and a green bubble built around the two boys. The bubble flew away, leaving Marinette and Master Fu alone in the brightly lit tunnel. Marinette sent another pulse of magic to return the glowing crystal to it’s original state.

"They'll be fine. I sent them home, and the younger will only remember getting lost and being found." Fu promised.

Marinette bit her lip, looking at the vacated spot as it became dark again. "Okay."

"We were looking for something, weren't we?"

***

Felix came back to feeling weirdly. He started to register the sounds from the room adjacent to his own, excited chatter from the twins. Then came feeling, and spatial awareness. And then _pain._

A thousand ants running up and down his left arm, biting every two steps. And on his finger, a band of hot metal cinched tightly, digging into the skin as it burned.

Felix tried to gasp, but his lungs refused to move. He tried to pry his eyes open and sit up, pushing at his chest with his right hand, but he _couldn't._ His body was refusing to listen!

Something else slammed into his chest, a fist-sized ball of force that restarted him.

He shot upwards with a gasp, pressing against his chest as hard as he could with his moveable arm, forcing his restarted lungs to keep moving.

Slowly, the pain in his limp arm faded, as did his panic. The burning on his finger stayed though. Once he was sure he could breathe, Felix looked to the cause.

There was a silver ring on his finger, smooth except for the decorative cat face with ruby eyes.

"You good?"

Felix yelped, and turned to see who had said that. And then he froze again. There was a black… bobblehead cat..?. floating at eye level.

"Sshhhh!" it hissed, flying towards him. "Look I'm sure this is scary, you don't know what's going on and neither really do I, which is way worse, but it'll be even worse if someone other than you sees me!"

"What are you?" Felix asked, forcing himself to breathe.

"I, good sir, am a Kwami. Plagg, nice to meet you, except we aren't supposed to have met.” Plagg did a flip in midair. “Maybe. Definitely not like this!"

"And what," Felix took a shaky breath. "Would a Kwami happen to be?"

“Conceptual Magic in the form of a being.”

Felix took a deep breath, and pressed his back into the sheets. “You are talking a code I am not understanding, and I think I’m overloading anyway.”

The ‘Kwami’ sighed. “I can’t blame you. Ask more questions when you’re ready for more information. But I need to eat before anything else.”

“Eat?” Felix asked.

“Yep. Cheese in particular.”

***

About six hours later, Felix and Plagg could be found at Felix’s desk, trying to pry the ring off of Felix’s finger.

There had been no luck.

Plagg groaned, and dive-bombed the desk. “This makes no sense!” he howled. “This isn’t even the self-defense mechanism!”

“What is the self-defense mechanism supposed to be?” Felix asked, leaning back against his chair.

“If or when I need to, I can tie the wearer’s soul to the ring, and transfer large amounts of bad luck to them. It lasts until someone with Creation and Purity magic frees them, after they prove themselves.”

“And you’re sure this isn’t that?”

“I’m pretty sure. If it is, it’s an edited version.”

Felix sighed. "So we have an unknown curse on a ring that's magic on its own, and you don't know any, sorcerers, you said?" Plagg nodded. "That could help us fix it. That's about the situation, correct?"

Plagg nodded again. "Just about everything, yep!"

Felix sighed again. "So I might be stuck like this?"

“Yep.” 

“For how long?”

"Forever."


	2. July 13th-Bad luck

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Even though this is the second chapter, I wrote 17 chapters before deciding that Allegra would know about magic.

“Oh my gosh, Fe, are you okay?”

Felix looked up at Allegra’s worried face. Her eyes were blue as ever. “I’m fine,” he sighed, reaching up. He'd hit the ground for the second time only moments ago, and it was undoubtedly because of the curse. Felix Prolux is not clumsy. She took his hand and shifted her weight until he was back on his feet. “Thanks.”

“Really though?” Allegra pressed. They started walking again. “You’ve been off, Fe. Did something happen?”

Felix scoffed. Understatement of the year. At Allegra’s worried look, he schooled some of the derision out of his expression. “Really, Legs. I’m okay. There was some personal crap, but I’ll get through it.”

“Okay,” she accepted. “Okay. Let me know if I can help at all. I’ll be happy to.”

He smiled. “I know. Thank you.”

Her phone buzzed, and she stopped to check it. When Allegra looked up, she was grinning.Felix felt a sudden rush happy dread as he recognized the expression. “Claude says they’re almost there. Wanna bet we can beat them?”

Felix smirked back, allowing himself to be swept up in the happy competition. “It’s worth a try. And even if we can’t beat them, I can probably beat you.”

Allegra whooped and took off running. “Keep up, pretty boy!”

Felix laughed and took off after her. Allegra took a harsh left, taking a shortcut Felix didn’t know. Felix slipped as he tried to follow her, ending up on the ground, _again._ He silently cursed the band on his finger.

He rolled to his hands and knees, wincing. That hurt. He took a few breaths, waiting until he felt ready to stand again. He stood up and started back towards the alleyway. He could probably play it off. Hopefully.

“Fe?”

Not.

“Legs.”

She looked really worried. Plagg’s weight in his pocket reminded him that he couldn’t tell her anything. He smirked, the smarmy, annoying one that drove peasants up the wall. Allegra opened her mouth, closed it, and then opened it again. “I know I backed off earlier, but this isn’t like you.”

Felix patted her shoulder. “No, not really.” And then he started running. “But this is!”

Allegra let out an indignant huff, and when Felix turned so he was running backwards, she was chasing him. Felix spun back to running normal, which was much safer. He cackled.

***

Allegra shrieked happily as she hit the wall of the theater. “I win!”

Felix laughed, sidling up and leaning against it beside her. “Yeah, you did.” He sounded out of breath. Allegra was winded too. She grinned anyway, looking over happily at her friend. His hair was floppy and she could see sweat at the roots.

Allegra reached over and ruffled it. Felix sputtered, pulling away to run his hands through it in an attempt to make it look styled. It wasn’t going to work.

“Hey guys!”

Allegra looked up, catching Claude’s energetic waves. She waved back, and he and Allan started over.

“Morning.” Allan hugged them each in turn, and then let Claude do the same. There was the unmistakable sound of coins hitting the ground as Claude pulled back from Felix's hug. He looked down and made a face.

“What even?” Allegra asked, ducking down to pick them up. Claude joined her.

“I don’t know.” He flipped his hand quietly, showing her black dust smeared across it. “It was fine thismorning.” The remains of his coin purse.

Allegra pursed her lips. Something was up. She looked around the area, but nothing stood out as out of place. They finished cleaning up the coins and stood up. She pasted on a smile she didn’t feel. “Come on, the sooner we get in and get seats, the better.”

Allan laughed. “You just don’t want to deal with the lines.”

“Of course I don’t,” Allegra scoffed. She made a shooing motion, and Allan bowed and started towards the inside of the building. Claude walked a little slower, keeping up with Allegra and Felix for almost a minute, before rolling his eyes and taking off.

“I thought you wanted to be in there early!”

She rolled her eyes indulgently, and sped up a tad. She was still keeping an eye out. It was doubtful negative talismans would be hanging in the open, but caution was never an error.

“What happened with Claude?” Felix asked quietly.

Allegra looked back to him. Felix was glaring resolutely ahead, lips pinched and eyebrows furrowed. Yeah, something was up. “Just a little bad luck,” Allegra lied softly. They kept going, getting their tickets and snacks, and then following the other boys into the actual theater room.

On the way down, Felix slipped again, dumping his soda all over his vest. After it was cleaned up, Allegra checked the floor. There was no reason for him to have slipped.

She hummed as the previews started.

Claude wasn’t the only one with Bad Luck, she was sure of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have decided I need a new update day for this. Idk what yet. Not Wednesday though.


	3. November 26 Fighting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh what’s this? Plot? Cue Dramatic Gasp.

Marinette’s heart stopped. Something jolted through her, leaving a slimy coating under her skin and on her muscles and up her throat and- she took a breath, heaving air into lungs that didn’t feel right anymore.

She scrambled to sit up, breaths coming in short gasps that went from pat-pat-pat to pat to nothing for seconds and then another set of heaving because she did need air, and forgetting to breath helped nothing.

Marinette waited until the pattern died off, even though she still felt wrong. Violated. As her breathing slowly returned to something even, the headache stayed. Something was wrong. Marinette pushed forward, towards the ladder from her bed. In her rush, she knocked it over.

Another deep breath. She found one of her bedposts and pushed magic to it, intending to reform it for the moment.

Marinette didn’t get that far.

As she tried to push magic through her hand, it started stinging heavily, like she had dipped it in a fryer with breading and now the breading was burning her skin while the oil and breading weighed her down.

She shrieked.

Something was wrong with her magic. That… that didn’t happen. Not without a very strong curse or-

Oh no.

Marinette grit her teeth, reaching in the dark for another bauble she kept near her at all times. She used her other hand to try again, just to turn the gnome into an arrow. It hurt nearly as much. Marinette dropped the object and realized she had stopped breathing again. She started the pattern, fast fast fast, normal, stop, fast fast fast, normal, stop, for the second time that night, tears streaming down her face.

That hurt. Physically. And worse. Her skin was only getting more slimy and painful, and she hated it.

She hadn’t done anything yesterday! Or even last week! The only way someone could have cursed her would be if they targeted her, which was a very, very scary notion.

***

**_Mage inc. Discord chat - Channel #General_ **

**Rough-glamor:** Any other @Changlings feeling completely whack tonight? I woke up in a cold sweat and it hurts to use my magic.

**Goldie The Queen Of France:** Nope, but my brother is. He’s also had his trail change colors, did that happen to you too?

**Rough-glamor:** Lemme check

Yep.

WTC?

**Flutetastic:** That’s really weird.

Sometimes it can act up if our physical states need help (I once had such severe sleep deprivation that the ringing in my ears became audible to everyone in the vicinity. Not fun to explain) but it’s p weird to see it happen in multiple cases at once.

**Le Chien adores la chatte:** Um, it’s kinda viral? Here in America anyway. People are collapsing and at least one exploded. The entire street turned into a victorian-era clothing store. I don’t know if they’ll play this off, or leave it like they do Pride.

**Flutetastic:** That’s… not a coincidence.

**Rough-glamor:** ‘bout to sound rlly crazy here, but like… does anyone know the state of our heart? I heard that Destruction mages had a really bad week in 2009, and then there was that one guy claiming he’d stolen the heart and cursed it.

**Goldie The Queen Of France:** Oh I really hope not. Corrupted hearts have really, really bad side-effects.

***

Gabriel watched the gem flicker, changing colors. The kwami that came with it was shaking like a leaf, but he didn’t care.

He finally had a way. He just needed to get enough attention.

Starting tomorrow, Emilie would be well on her way to healing.

***

Marinette threw up. She wasn’t the only one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Allegra is Flutetastic. The others are just mages, because Paris isn't the entire world and this has large scale effects.  
> Also, I legit see people talking about earthquakes and rlly bad storms as they happen, so it's not farfetched at all. We find people online we trust and who do their best to give us correct info, making them a more reliable source than just googling. And a more precise source. Digging through articles is exhausting and scary.


	4. November 2nd-Magic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Guys I forgot about my posting schedule I'm sorry have a late chapter)  
> Completely honest here, Allegra just sort of... popped. into existence this year. All her major points are recently added in, she walked into the school scene and took over.
> 
> I don't mind all that much. It means I get to focus more on Felix as a character and less on his and Marinette's budding relationship, which hasn't even started and isn't important yet.
> 
> Also Plagg is a bit of a jerk here. I totally based his line off of The Prince Of Egypt, when the king says something similar to Moses and it's the most horrifying thing in the movie. I wanted that same vibe.

The night before the first day of school had Plagg just as anxious as Felix, so they sat down and made what would hopefully be a foolproof plan to  _ not _ get anyone hurt. And on the first day of school, they followed it.

They had gotten up  _ early, _ gotten to school just as early despite a flat tire on the way there, and Felix was expecting to have to skirt around hugs from his friends in class. Except they weren’t in homeroom together.

Instead, he had the Mayor’s daughter, the daughter of a diplomat he had never heard of, the Lahiffe kid, and the Agreste boy.

He was unamused, to say the least.

“They can’t be that bad,” Plagg drawled lazily, perching unworridly on Felix’s shoulder. He ducked behind Felix’s neck when the Rossi girl turned in her seat to wink at him.

“She looks like a snake, Chloe outright is a hornet, and Adrien… admittedly I have nothing on him, but I don’t need more friends, and he seems the type.” At least Nino was chill. He had never tried to use his status, and few even realized he had any.

Plagg sighed, sticky breath hot on the back of his neck. “I have met zero of your friends. I don’t believe you.”

Felix rolled his eyes. Another classmate turned around, reaching for her bag. She pulled out her tablet, set the bag back down, and looked up. Her eyes widened when they met his. She squeaked, and spun back around, clicking haphazardly.

Felix groaned to himself. Just what he needed, a fan in his class.

***

They made it to the end of First Hour, literature, before something blew up. Rossi’s seatmate (Ivan) had gotten sent to the principal's office after getting upset at one of the other kids across the aisle (Kim). The rest of the class had dispersed, heading off to their next classes. Felix had a study hall. He took a seat in the back of the room and logged into his computer.

“Hey Fe.”

“Allegra!” He smiled, and held up his hand for a high-five. She returned the gesture and took the seat beside him. “What class are you working on?”

“Criminology. You?”

“History.” Felix pointedly didn’t make a face at that. History was actually relatively cool, but nothing had fallen apart yet, and he was still worried.

“Fun,” Allegra grinned and leaned over, probably about to spill some tea, but was cut off by the building shaking. She jumped back, bracing against the table. Felix did the same, searching the walls and ceiling for weak points.

The screams petered out for a moment before another tremor shook the school. It seemed less dangerous.

“Kid.” 

Felix ignored Plagg, more focused on the bookshelves that were probably going to come down on his head soon. “Legs, we gotta get to the courtyard.”

“I know,” Allegra hissed back, sliding her bag back over her shoulder. She grabbed his hand and they started down towards the door, mostly calm around the screaming.

Most were treating it half like a fire alarm and half like- well, he didn’t know, but it included panicking and screaming.

“Kid!”

“What?” Felix hissed, twisting around a student he didn’t know. They were closer to the entryway, so he could see the security cameras. There was a golem in the courtyard. Had been, since they just broke an entire wall and stepped outside. Felix braced himself against Allegra as the school shook.

“You gotta get out there!”

“I what?”

Plagg huffed through his nose, anger and annoyance coming through all at once. “You have to get out there and help fight the akuma!”

“Is that what the actual name for the golem is?” Felix asked. There was another tremor, this was causing something to actually come off the wall. They yelped in unison as he pulled Allegra back as it hit the ground and shattered.

“Yes!”

“Why do I have to go?” Felix followed Allegra out of the library at last, and was met with utter chaos on the other floors. No way was this safe.

“Because someone has to help the Coccinelle!”

“The what?”

Allegra turned to look at Felix in confusion. Apparently he had said that too loudly. Felix shrugged, unable to play it off around the adrenaline and questioning how much good any of the drills had been. Most of the surrounding students were running like headless chickens.

Plagg must have decided he didn’t care at this point either, because he dug tiny claws into Felix’s shoulder. “The Miraculous of Creation and purification. My opposite.” Another few students ran past, Felix noted dimly. “Something you should be near to head off the curse, and hopefully something who can take it off, even through editing. You have to get out there!”

So his one chance at undoing this curse was to go fight a monster, akuma apparently, and hope the person with the miraculous would be nice enough to set him free. And this was all happening while an akuma (which meant what?) was rampaging and destroying the neighborhood?

Felix officially hated this.

“How do you expect me to do that?”

“Get away from everyone and say Claws Out. Your weapon will have an instruction manual, and if you can find them, the coccinelle will probably help too.”

“What is going on?” Allegra asked. The ground shook harder, and she bent her knees. “Actually, I don’t care. Fe, you cannot actually be entertaining the idea of going out there! We have drills for this! A large part is get to safety, not run into danger!”

“He has to!” Plagg snarled.

Felix took advantage of being attached to Allegra and started pulling her towards the stairs. There was a new noise, and suddenly the ba-dum ba-dum footstep tremors were drowned out by screaming and the heart-stopping noise of displaced air. A skyscraper started to crumble a few blocks away.

Felix covered his mouth with his free hand. This was sick. Insane. Mass murder. Beside him, Allegra stopped supporting her weight, causing them both to go down in the middle of the walkway. “Oh my gosh. That-” she shook her head. “Fe?” her voice cracked. Felix leaned over and hugged her.

“C’mon. The ground isn’t safe.” He was going to throw up. He knew things like this happened, but Felix had never  _ witnessed _ it before.

Plagg pulled Felix up by the hair. “Right you are. Anyway, they’re only humans, move on.”

All of the grudging respect and ally moments from the past week died in a moment, replaced with horror. “What?” He managed.

“How can you say that?” Allegra hissed, chest heaving. Her grip on Felix’s fingers was painful.

“Humans die,” Plagg said seriously. “It’s what happens. Other humans move on. If it worries you so much, transform and go help.”

“Absolutely not!”

“Legs-” Felix started. He couldn’t- if he didn’t try then he was responsible for more dying. “If I have-” Allegra cut him off, which was okay because Felix didn’t know what he was trying to say anyway.

“That’s the job of the police! The Government! The Magic Council! Not that of an untrained teenager!” She was shaking. Felix felt vaguely like he should be too.

“For this teenager it is,” Plagg snarled. “He has my powers, he needs to use them.”

“Legs.”

“Fine! Fine!” She snarled. “But if you don’t come back I’ll- I’ll desecrate your grave.” And then she hugged him. Felix returned it. His chest felt off, stuck in a loop of panic-anger-fear fuelled by adrenaline.

“I’ll do my best. Ready, Plagg? Claws out.”

He was still as Plagg zipped into the ring, and a green layer of sparkles enveloped him. What sort of magical girl anime had his life become? Oh yeah, not one, because they didn’t really get cursed.

When the light faded, he was wearing a black bodysuit, with a silver cat-shaped belt buckle, similar to the cat face of his ring. Two high boots, and thick gloves. Felix couldn’t see the rest of himself, but he imagined it was along the same vein. Allegra was watching him tensely. They looked at each other for a few seconds.

“Your baton is on your back,” Allegra said softly, eventually.

He felt around and found a stick the length of his forearm.There was a button in the middle. He pressed it. “Thanks, Legs.” It flicked open, revealing a screen. Okay, he could work with this. Probably.

The ground shook as another building collapsed. Felix flinched.

***

He found the coccinelle, or who he hoped was her, trading blows with the monster on the other side of the city. As loathe as he was to admit it, even after speed-reading the manual, Felix didn’t know what he was doing, which meant he was going to have to defer to her. Teamwork,  _ yay! _

“Can I help at all?”

She barely looked towards him, instead flipping away from a giant fist. “Black cat, right?”

..He didn’t have a name yet. “Sure.” Felix realized a moment later she was talking about his miraculous and not his name. Ugh.

The monster got a lucky hit in, and she went flying to his side of the repurposed stadium. No one should survive that. He was at her side in an instant, ready to do… something.

Her face was scrunched as though in pain, but she used him to stagger to her feet anyway. “I’m good.” Even with that said, she held his arm for balance for a few moments. “I think I know where his object is, but not what it is. Do you know how to look?”

Felix shook his head, despite himself. He had to be honest here, as much as he hated being inferior to anyone, especially strangers. "My kwami told me I needed to get out and help you, and told me where the instruction manual is. Nothing else."

She nodded, blue eyes trained on the monster. Or purple eyes, apparently. Felix tensed as they changed colors. That wasn’t normal. He was pulled out of his panic by her continuing to talk.

"I can work with that. The object is important, it's the link between the Miraculous itself and the person being used. It's something connected to the champion, and usually it's something to protect in battle. Since it's been corrupted though, we need to break it. That'll cut the connection, and then I can purify it."

Félix nodded. That was relatively simple. "Seems almost straightforward."

She scoffed. “Almost. I can hold him still if you can search for the object. It should be in his left hand.”

“I can.” He left out the try. He wouldn’t be  _ trying. _

“Ready?” she asked. He didn’t have time to respond because her weapon - he hadn’t seen it before, but it had a string and a weight on it - was already flying back out to the battleground. “Hey rockhead! One on one seems a bit unfair considering your size, doesn’t it?”

The golem bent slightly, and started talking slowly. “What, did you bring a friend?”

She smiled. “Made one, actually.” Her weapon shot out again, wrapping around the golem’s arm. She braced the string around her elbow, digging her heels into the ground. “Now!”

Felix jumped forward, landing on top of the clenched fist. He started by trying to pry it open with his hands, but it wasn't budging. He hissed, glancing around the area while he dug his claws into the rock as the monster tried to throw him off. There had to be a way to get inside, without dusting the guy. Wait a minute. Dusting was one of his special powers. He also had a far-range one and a teleportation one. Just what he needed.

He grinned, and called for the attack, thinking about where he wanted to go on the other side. “Black hole!” A black smoky disc appeared in midair, and Felix reached inside.

It worked.

He felt around the inside of the clenched hand, finding a bunched up paper flopping around. He pulled it out through the vortex.

"Would this be an object?" he called, swallowing a scream as the Monster shook his hand again and Felix lost his grip. He landed against the rows of seats, and understood what the coccinelle girl had felt earlier. That  _ hurt. _

__ “Break it!” She called, her yo-yo unravelling from around the akuma’s arm. She threw it out again, wrapping the villain up like a mummy.

"Just crumble it?" he asked, rolling onto all fours despite the pain. He shouldn’t be alive after that, or at least not able to move.

"Yes!"

Felix did so, crushing the paper for all it was worth. It started to dissolve, and a butterfly materialised among the dust.

His companion started to say something, but her voice was drowned out by what sounded like a rock slide. Felix looked back in time to see their foe start to, quite literally, come apart at the seams. Rocks started to rain around them, crashing loudly against the turf. “Get out of there!”

Red emerged from the dust in a flip, pulling one of his homeroom classmates out with her. How did he get there?

She turned to look at him. “Grab the Akuma!”

“He’s a pile of rocks!” Felix called back.

Above his head, a corrupted butterfly flapped languidly away. Her yo-yo shot out towards it, swinging past his head and then back. “Crap!”

“What was that?” Felix asked, jumping back defensively.

“The akuma butterfly!” Red yelled back. “It got away!”

“What?”

***

After they’d gotten Ivan to the ambulance with shock therapy, and Red explained it was a case of possession and there had better not be any repercussions against him, she jumped to a roof.

Without the chaos, Felix could appreciate her suit better. It was mostly red and spotted, but she had black patches under her arms and on her legs, and a black casing on her back with a pink butterfly printed on it. Her mask was a light purple domino, and the ribbons tying her hair back into pigtails were mismatched and changing colors passively.

“Are you okay?” Chat asked her carefully. He definitely wasn't.

She glared up at him, eyes a blazing purple. “No! They're using my magic to terrorize my city, and- I still haven't fixed it." The last part of the sentence was subdued.

Felix blinked. He looked over the city, crumbled with sirens and flashing lights blinking through the streets. It was barely midday, but felt much later. He sighed. "I don't understand what most of that means," Felix admitted softly. He could give her a little honesty. "But I'm willing to help."

Red smiled sadly. "Thank you. But it isn't your battle."

Felix scoffed. "Plagg would beg to differ."

Red flinched. "Yeah, the Kwami do that." She opened her weapon like a flip phone and stuck her arm into it. After a few minutes of rummaging around, she pulled out a spotted piece of paper. Sickly black and purple bubbles started oozing from her gloves. Felix watched in fascinated wonder, terror creeping up his throat for no reason. The bubbles faded out, as did the feeling, leaving a red and black throwing disc in her hands. "I'll catch them. Whoever this is, whoever is behind this, I will catch them. And I will  _ make them pay." _ She took a breath, the eyes under her mask a bright red. She tossed the disc in her hand once, twice, and then she threw it off the roof. "Miraculous Cure!!"

It glowed. And then it split into a buzz of tiny, tiny sparkling bugs that split off and swirled across the city.

Felix gasped as the buildings in view were pulled back up into their original placements. "How?"

"Restoration," Red said quietly. "I'm borrowing their Miracle Stone."

Felix hummed, not fully listening. This was… a lot better than he had hoped for.

“You should head home.” Red said softly. “I’ll figure something out for this abuser.”

“Will you be okay?” The question was a formality. Felix couldn’t do much to help, and he desperately wanted to get home and see his family. He should check in on Allegra too, and Claude and Allan.

“Of course,” Red grinned, her eyes turning blue and open. Felix didn’t trust it, but he didn’t question it either.

“Goodbye.” 


	5. July 27-Once Upon A Time (2020)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote part of this with Allegra and Aurore as cousins and then again as sisters. Decided I liked it more. Are they step-sisters, Harper and Beaureal? Is Aurore actually a Harper? Is Allegra really a Beaureal? Who knows?

Allegra was pacing. Really, really fast.

She watched the ladybugs slip down into the cellar, felt her bruises and cut from getting home heal, and was overcome with an irrational rush of anger. She knew it was a good thing. Of course it was! Those ladybugs were healing survivors, maybe even bringing people back to life, she had read about the pure, no-practice needed, miracle-like feats that could be made with someone using a magic heart.

She really hoped that Felix was okay. Really, really hoped that he was okay. He had gone out there, with no training and- okay, if that ring was a magic heart like she suspected, he had a huge amount of power backing him. But without training, that was nearly as much of a hazard as the corrupted heart that caused this. And he was on his own.

This was horrible. So, so very horrible. Her chest hurt from how fast her heart was beating.

She turned again, jumping when her phone rang. It had barely been half an hour since this started, but she felt years older.

A ridiculous picture of her sister Aurore popped up, the blonde pulling her smile with her fingers while a paper cloud hung from her tongue. Allegra answered without thinking. She hit the speaker button, not stopping in her movements.

“Arlette and I are both okay, we’re in the storm cellar. No news of mom or dad. Your turn?”

Aurore sighed, the noise distorted by the speaker. “Thank goodness. Mom’s still in Germany, I just got off the phone with her. The crisis delayed flights.” Allegra felt relief. Someone was safe. She opened her mouth to ask about dad, but Aurore beat her to it. “Dad was in the office Stoneheart brought down.”

Allegra’s heart stuttered. She closed her eyes. That meant he was either dead or injured. That  _ hurt. _

“I think he’s okay though! All the corpses-” and wow, wasn’t that a horrible way to hear her sister refer to their dad? “-seem to be waking up, so I’m waiting to see if I can find him.”

“Ror, please tell me you weren’t outside this entire time.”

Aurore was silent. “Not technically? We had PE, you know this, so we all sort of scattered to wherever we could find for shelter?”

Allegra felt vaguely like swearing. “I love you so much, but you’re a dummy.”

“I’m a dummy who will be home in thirty minutes?” Aurore offered sheepishly. Allegra sighed.

“Be careful.”

“I will,” her sister promised.

***

Arlette patted her big sister’s cheek. Allegra smiled back, but it wasn’t as big as it should have been.

Arlette didn’t like that.

She didn’t like today, period.

First, she felt really bad last night, and kept waking up. Second, the ground threw up during breakfast and it was really scary. Her babysitter screamed with her, a lot. Third, the ground throwing up meant the sky came down, and that sounded like thunder but worse and she hated it. Fourth, her babysitter took her down to the super secret emergency underground hiding room, and then left her in her playpen,  _ alone. _ While the ground kept throwing up. Fifth, when Allegra finally got there after forever of Arlette crying alone while the ground stopped throwing up, she was crying too. There is something horribly, inherently wrong with seeing your big sister cry. Sixth, Aurore and dad were still not here. Seventh was that Allegra had just told her mom wouldn’t get home until tomorrow.

Arlette laid her head on Allegra’s shoulder, two-year-old arms drooping over her shoulders. She didn’t like today. She wanted it to be over.

***

Snow Cone:

Monster is down. I’m unhurt. Other hero fixed the city(?) What’s your status?

Me:

Mostly good. Sisters are okay, waiting for news on dad.

Snow Cone:

Fingers crossed.

Me:

How are your sibs?

Snow Cone:

Emilia has locked herself in a cocoon, Rio broke his arm but it was reportedly healed, and Dira is clinging to Mè.

Me:

Oh thank goodness.

***

Felix poked at his bedsheets, not meeting Allegra’s eyes. Plagg was here, off sleeping in a pile of smelly cheese.

It had been two days since the confrontation in front of the eiffel.

“What do you need to know?”

“Everything.”

Allegra made a noise somewhere between a growl and a sigh. “Specifically.”

“You know magic.”

“Since I was four. My sect is sentiment.”

“What are the sects?”

“Officially? Protection, Modification, Sentiment, Purity, Destruction, Restoration, Deception, Chaos, and Manipulation. Unofficially, we call them protection, change, empathy, order, destruction, creation, illusions, bees, and chaos.”

“Confusing.”

Allegra laid down, jostling Felix as she did. “It’s a big world.”

“Do I need to be sworn to secrecy?”

She snorted, and Felix actually looked at her. Allegra was smirking. “Oh no, kid. No code of secrecy. We just exist and wait for people to pull their heads out enough to notice us.”

He hummed. She reached up and booped him.

“It’ll be okay.”

“I just signed up for a war. A magic war.”

Allegra’s face hardened. “And for that, you are an idiot. But we’ll figure it out. If you have any questions, I’ll try to answer them, and if I can’t then ask Ladybug. She’ll be good for that, I’m sure.”

“So what are the hearts?”

“Miraculous. They’re like… imagine each sorcerer or sorceress has a cigarette lighter’s worth of power in them. The miraculous, the hearts, they have a flamethrower’s worth.”

“Extreme concentration.”

“Yeah, that.”

Felix nodded. “I’m sorry.”

“You better be!” Allegra moved to smack his leg. “You could die. You could die and then I’d have to tell your parents and Allan and Claude and my sisters and I’d want nothing more than to yell at you but I won’t be able to-” She took a harsh breath. “I won’t be able to because there’s only so much death anyone can reverse, even Restoration.”

He leaned on her. “I’m sorry, Legs.”

“Just don’t die.” She wiped at her eyes. ‘Ugh, I can’t believe we’re talking about this. This is ridiculous. I hate it.”

Felix agreed. Once upon a time, comments like this would be mostly joking while she stepped into a river or climbed a pile of rocks. They weren't supposed to be directed at him. They weren’t supposed to be legitimate threats.

“Hey, I’m in a discord server that’s pretty good for answering questions, if you want?”

“The more sources, the better.”

Allegra grinned and grabbed her phone. “Thank goodness, because I’m actually pretty clueless outside my element.”

Felix giggled. Well, they’d have to find a happily ever after sometime, wouldn’t they?


	6. July 7th- Good Luck

The heroes didn’t meet up again until two nights and one akuma later, when Felix caught sight of Ladybug running across the Parisian rooftops. He transformed and caught up with her. After a quick split to cover more ground, they reconvened on the Arc de Triomphe.

He took the chance to learn more. “So, magic, huh, Red?”

Ladybug sighed. She was on the very top, legs kicking over the edge and wings hanging limply from the shell on her back. "Yeah. I'm a sorceress."

"Do you know anything about curses?"

Ladybug looked at him weirdly, but eventually she nodded. "Not a lot, but I know some. Basic cursebreaking and I've been trying to build one to use on Hawkmoth once we find him."

Chat shivered. He did not envy Hawkmoth. His was bad enough, and it was reportedly mellow compared to some that Plagg had seen (or helped create). Time to pose the question. Worse case, she gets offended. Best case, she agrees to help. (Worst case, she curses him again).

She beat him to the punch. "Why do you ask? Are you afflicted?"

"Is that the PC way to ask if I'm cursed?"

Ladybug started laughing.. "Yeah, pretty much," she confirmed, nodding.

"The answer would be yes," Félix said.

Ladybug nodded again. "Have you gotten help yet?"

Chat shook his head. "I was hoping you could help me. Or point me towards someone who could."

"You're not a sorcerer!" Ladybug said loudly, hands flying from the ledge to the air.

Chat looked at her, stormy blue eyes unamused. "That has been established."

She smacked her forehead. "Oh my goodness you poor mortal! How did I forget that? Is everything with your Miraculous making sense? Is-"

He held up a hand, watching her eyes follow it as her voice petered out. "You know about Miraculous, right?"

"Yes."

"Then you know what comes with them."

She huffed and folded her arms. "A lot of stuff, that's what. Why?"

Félix rolled his eyes. "I have a floating cat who I'm not supposed to talk about but who told me how the ring works." And Allegra, but there was no possible way he would tell Ladybug about her.

"Oh!" Ladybug said, rolling her head. "Right. Kwami. Okay, yeah.

"So your curse; would you rather I refer you to a specialist or I run interference and try to figure it out between us and then between him and I?"

...Felix hadn't been expecting anything like that. He was expecting a clear-cut, 'we'll do it this way', verdict, not a choice.

Did he want to go meet more Sorcerers knowingly?

Not really. Between Allegra and Ladybug, and the new chatroom, he was a bit overwhelmed as it was. He would rather not meet someone else face to face.

"Are you up to running interference?"

Ladybug nodded. "Yep! Do you want to start tonight?"

Chat raised an eyebrow at her. She seemed optimistic enough, but was she really up for that tonight? "It's almost ten o'clock."

Ladybug shrugged. "I'm up late anyway." she blinked, and suddenly she backpedaled. "But that doesn't mean you have to talk about it now! Sometimes curses are a really sensitive topic, and if you were just asking so you knew when you were ready, I don't want to rush you. Really. Just, I'm ready when you are."

Chat watched her ramble, a similar warmth to that he got with his family filling his chest.

He didn't know much about her, and he would remember to be wary, but Ladybug… she seemed genuine. Panicky and imperfect, but determined, with a big heart. Someone he could realistically become friends with, outside the whole magical-war thing.

"Thank you, Ladybug. I'll tell you eventually."

She smiled at him, sheepish but caring, blue eyes sparkling. "I think I like it better when you call me Red."

Chat snorted, despite himself. "Understood, Red."

They fell into a comfortable silence, Ladybug playing with those black and purple bubbles she could do, and Félix mentally compiling all he knew about magic.

"Is it true what they say about lucky and unlucky colors and creatures?”

Ladybug shrugged. “That’s… a tricky question.” Chat looked over to see her puff her cheeks. “See, luck is a delicate subject. Mostly because it can change so easily.

“Like, I’m using two of the biggest good luck symbols out there, cause I’m red and a Ladybug, but most would say my luck is absolutely  _ horrible. _ I trip on thin air, and I walk into walls even if they weren’t there a minute ago, my love life is currently stagnant but when it’s active it’s pretty sad, there are at least two influential girls who hate my guts just because I breathe. Seems like bad luck, right?”

“I think so?” He replied slowly. Where was she going with this?

“And yet, I barely ever bruise, I can throw a guy even without superpowers, and both of those girls get hit with a faceful of karma every few days. And I’ve learned to cut down my recovery time by a whole lot,” Ladybug shrugged. “So what is my luck, really?”

Chat shrugged back. “I don’t know. Just luck?”

“That’s my view too. Things can push your luck in one direction or another, but it’s less like a wall you can step over and more like a rubberband you can pull. Or a compass needle.”

“My curse includes quite a lot of bad luck, does that essentially mean that there’s an extra magnet on one side of my luck compass?”

Ladybug clapped, nodding. “You got it!”

“Is there a way for me to pull it back?”

Ladybug pursed her lips. “Good luck tokens?”

“Where do I get those?”

“I can bring you some tomorrow,” Ladybug offered.

“I would very much appreciate that.”


End file.
